The present invention relates to the field of software application instructional support and, more particularly, to a dynamic role-based instructional symbiont for software application instructional support.
A wide variety of means have been created over the years to electronically support the instruction of users in regard to software applications. From computer-based training (CBT) courses and interactive tutorials to online help wizards and knowledge bases, users seeking additional training or instruction for using a software application have a multitude of options.
However, many of these conventional approaches for providing instructional support rely upon the user being able to choose the appropriate topic or operation for which they need assistance. Even when the correct topic is selected, the specific function or question that the user needs assistance with is overlooked or unsatisfactorily addressed. Such situations consume a great deal of the user's time as they locate and sit through unnecessary instructional sessions.
Most forms of instructional support, such as CBT courses, follow a linear progression of topics and/or tasks. That is, the instructional support mechanism provides the user with instructional data according to a predefined script. This is often frustrating for users who have some knowledge of the software application, since they must perform or acknowledge all topics/tasks that precede the specific topic/task of interest.
Thus, conventional instructional support models are only interactive in the sense that they require the user to perform some function (i.e., click a button or select a topic), either with the actual software application or a component of the instructional support application.
Additionally, conventional CBT courses have proven cumbersome and obtrusive to the user; in that they require him/her to constantly shift his/her attention between two or more different media, such as between a manual and a computer screen. Even computer-only instructional materials have suffered from “focus shifting” issues as users are often forced to divide their attention between two (or more) separate windows which operate independently of each other. For example, a user of an application receiving “help” from a help file for that application must shift his/her attention back and forth between the help file and the application itself.